2026 NHL mock draft: Final experts’ picks ahead of real thing
June 26, 2026, 8:15 a.m. ET
It’s finally here: The 2026 NHL Draft, with some big names from college and around the world learning this weekend where they’ll land in the first round (on Friday night) and in Rounds 2 through 7 (on Saturday).
This means the end of mock draft season, in which most folks think Gavin McKenna is going No. 1 overall. And for that, we have the exercise below: As usual, we took all the NHL mock drafts and smushed them into a “consensus” draft, which paints a picture on where the experts think the stars of tomorrow will land.
Here’s a list of the mock drafts we used:
Average: 1.0
2. San Jose Sharks: LW/RW Ivar Stenberg, Frolunda
Average: 2.0
Average: 3.6
4. Buffalo Sabres: D Chase Reid, Sault Ste. Marie
Average: 4.4
5. New York Rangers: D Carson Carels, Prince George
Average: 5.4
6. Calgary Flames: F Viggo Bjorck, Djugardens IF
Average: 6.4
7. Seattle Kraken: D Alberts Smits, Jukurit
Average: 7.0
8. Winnipeg Jets: D Keaton Verhoeff, North Dakota
Average: 7.8
9. San Jose Sharks: D Daxon Rudolph, Prince Albert
Average: 8.2
10. Nashville Predators: LW Wyatt Cullen, USNTDP
Average: 10.2
Average: 11.6
12. New Jersey Devils: C Tynan Lawrence, Boston University
Average: 12.0
13. New York Islanders: LW Ethan Belchetz, Windsor
Average: 12.8
Average: 14.0
15. St. Louis Blues: C Alexander Command, Orebro
Average: 16.8
16. St. Louis Blues: LW Oscar Hemming, Boston College
Average: 17.4
17. Los Angeles Kings: LW Adam Novotny, Peterborough
Average: 18.4
18. Washington Capitals: C Oliver Suvanto, Tappara
Average: 18.6
19. Utah Mammoth: C Ilia Morozov, Miami University
Average: 20.4
20. Buffalo Sabres: RW Nikita Klepov, Saginaw
Average: 21.4
21. Philadelphia Flyers: LW JP Hurlbert, Kamloops
Average: 21.4
Average: 21.8
23. Boston Bruins: W Elton Hermansson, MoDo
Average: 24.0
24. Vancouver Canucks: RW Mathis Preston, Vancouver
Average: 24.2
25. Ottawa Senators: D Maksim Sokolovski, London
Average: 25.6
26. New York Rangers: D Tommy Bleyl, Moncton
Average: 25.6
27. San Jose Sharks: RW Liam Ruck, Medicine Hat
Average: 26.6
Average: 28.8
29. St. Louis Blues: C Brooks Rogowski, Oshawa
Average: 29.0
30. Calgary Flames: D Xavier Villenuve, Blainville-Boisbriand
Average: 29.4
Average: 30.0
32. Ottawa Senators: RW Gleb Pugachyov, Nizhny Novgorod
Average: 31.0
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